St. Landry democrat., 1887-02-26
THE INSIDE ENEMIES
WHO FOUGHT WASHINGTON WHILE
HE FOUGHT THE BRITISH.

Foes within the Patriotic Fo1d-The
jealous Murmurings, the Rascality and
Malice Which Secretly Attacked the
Great Colonial Leader.
A history of the revolutionary war from
the pen of Washington would have revealed
the fact that he contended with other foes
than the English; that these foes were in-
ternal, of his own country and pertinent to
the cause, and that to lis inexhaustible pa
tience in dealing with these is as much due
our independence as to his geueralship i'll the
field
The republic was then but the republic in
idea 1t was new untried and without prece-
dent in modern history. To many even Of
those urging it it seemed wild and visionary.
A few men, in reality, bolstered up the whole
moral strength of the American cause.
The colonies were in effect so many indie
pendent nations Without railroads or tele
graphs, they were sundered by distances now
almost unappreciable They did not know
each other as to-day. Massachusetts, and the
Carolinas We're then farther apart than are
now America and England Aristocracy,
aristocratic tendencies and reverence for
present The kings name was still a tower
of strength for thousands. "Sirs" and lords
governed extensive domains, and were looked
up to by 'lowborn" tenants as the vassals of
feudal age regarded their masters.
With the mass of the people the Colonial
congress had not the weight and respect of
the congress of to-day. 1t was new thing.
1t lacked the prestige of age Itwas also with
Id, cfA
1t had to bear something in that time of the
i'll repute which now attaches itself to con-
vention of ultra radicals, it had no physical
power for enforcing or carrying out its
measures Internally there were chickering's,
contentious and iealousies. There were in
that time no reporters to ferret out and tell
of these things New England, or a part of
it's sentiment, was dissatisfied because the
aristocratic Virginian was appointed to she
chief command The spirits Of the Cavalier
and Roundhead were represented III that con-
gress The Episcopalian and Presbyterian
were there both with the memories of Charles
and Cromwell far fresher than to-day. Such
elements could not meet even for common
purpose without personal antlpathy and re-
sultant antagonism There was no power,
no surety that any colony would remain true
TO Unc cause. "A flaUIOn ulSGdut teu udyS VI d
fortnight's slow travel from Philadelphia
might be represented by one man, and such
representation be swayed by the whim, the
prejudice or personal antipathy of that man,
with no possibility of such action on his part
coming to the ears of those who sent him for
month.
The battle then waged by Washington was
only in part against the English. Half of his
strength was expended in resisting the vari-
GUS destructive forces arising within the spa-
triot cause" It took the forms of jealous
murmurings, whims. rascality, Indifference.
Be the cause as righteous as it may, these foes
always are at work at the core. They belong
to immature human nature, and are sure to
come. Because man is convinced of any
particular injustice and eager to right it, is
no proof that he is himself without weak
nerves or personal ambition. The most diff
cult quality to secure in any just movement
is the capacity for impersonal effort-for
effort induced entirely by love of the cause
and the work. and which can DO its work